Sony revealed the latest prototype of its virtual reality headset today, when it announced it will release the Playstation 4-compatible device to consumers in the first half of 2016.

The Project Morpheus prototype displayed at the Game Developer Conference (GDC) doesn’t look much different from the version revealed at the conference in 2014, but it now sports a 5.7-inch screen with a 1920 x RGB x 1080 pixel OLED display, 120 frames per second refresh rate and 100-degree field of view. Latency is less than half that of the earlier model — less than 18 milliseconds, which Worldwide Studios president Shu Yoshida said surpasses the 20 milliseconds at which people can no longer tell virtual reality from the real world, according to Ars Technica.

A rendering of Sony’s Project Morpheus virtual reality headset, released during the 2015 GDC conference.

Playstation 4 was designed to output games at 120 frames per second, which the company believes to…

A team of security researchers unearthed a decade-old vulnerability called the FREAK (Factoring attack on RSA-EXPORT Keys) attack, which impacts Google and Apple device users who may have visited websites, including Whitehouse.gov and NSA.gov, according to a Washington Postreport. One of the researchers who spotted the vulnerability told the Post that “Of the 14 million Web sites worldwide that offer encryption, more than 5 million remained vulnerable as of Tuesday morning.”

According to Matthew Green, a cryptographer and research professor at Johns Hopkins University who has been looking into the flaw, the security researchers found serious vulnerabilities in the security protocols used by the Safari browser and the browser found in Android devices. These protocols are used to encrypt data through secure network connections between websites and browsers.

Even though the Android browser in question uses the OpenSSL protocol and Safari uses the Apple TLS/SSL protocols, both…

]]>https://johnson345.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/decade-old-freak-bug-leaves-google-and-apple-device-users-vulnerable/feed/0Featured Image -- 167imomarMobile recap: Pebble Time; Pixel 2 coming; Apple Watch questionshttps://johnson345.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/mobile-recap-pebble-time-pixel-2-coming-apple-watch-questions/
https://johnson345.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/mobile-recap-pebble-time-pixel-2-coming-apple-watch-questions/#respondMon, 02 Mar 2015 16:46:10 +0000http://johnson345.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/mobile-recap-pebble-time-pixel-2-coming-apple-watch-questions/Gigaom: After selling one million of its original Pebble watches, the company is zigging when the competition is zagging. Pebble Time is the next product in the line, and while it adds new features and a new…]]>

After selling one million of its original Pebble watches, the company is zigging when the competition is zagging. Pebble Time is the next product in the line, and while it adds new features and a new interface, the watch isn’t likely to be confused with either an Android Wear or Apple Watch.

That’s because Pebble Time is a gently improved watch that doesn’t sacrificing the original product’s of core strengths. It still has an e-paper display and should run for a week on a charge, for example. Pebble Time will also still work with both [company]Apple[/company] iOS and [company]Google[/company] Android handsets; there’s been some chatter and evidence of Windows Phone support, but it’s still not coming from Pebble.

So what’s new and better with Pebble Time? The device is a little wider but thinner and has a color e-paper screen. It also has a microphone for responding to notifications…

]]>https://johnson345.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/mobile-recap-pebble-time-pixel-2-coming-apple-watch-questions/feed/0Featured Image -- 162imomarWhy 2015 is the year of encryptionhttps://johnson345.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/why-2015-is-the-year-of-encryption/
https://johnson345.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/why-2015-is-the-year-of-encryption/#respondMon, 02 Mar 2015 16:45:32 +0000http://johnson345.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/why-2015-is-the-year-of-encryption/Gigaom: During a visit to Silicon Valley earlier this month, President Obama described himself as “a strong believer in strong encryption.” Some have criticized the president for equivocating on the issue, but as “strong believers” ourselves, we’ll…]]>

During a visit to Silicon Valley earlier this month, President Obama described himself as “a strong believer in strong encryption.” Some have criticized the president for equivocating on the issue, but as “strong believers” ourselves, we’ll take him at his word. Obama isn’t alone; everyone is calling for encryption, from activists to engineers, and even government agencies tasked with cybersecurity.

In the past, using encryption to secure files and communication has typically only been possible for technically sophisticated users. It’s taken some time for the tech industry and the open source community to ramp up their efforts to meet the call for widespread, usable encryption, but the pieces are in place for 2015 to be a turning point.

Last fall, [company]Apple[/company] and [company]Google[/company] announced that the newest versions of iOS and Android would encrypt the local storage of mobile devices by default, and 2015 will be the year this…

]]>https://johnson345.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/why-2015-is-the-year-of-encryption/feed/0Featured Image -- 160imomarGalaxy S6 and S6 Edge: A new look for Samsung and a new wallethttps://johnson345.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/galaxy-s6-and-s6-edge-a-new-look-for-samsung-and-a-new-wallet/
https://johnson345.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/galaxy-s6-and-s6-edge-a-new-look-for-samsung-and-a-new-wallet/#respondMon, 02 Mar 2015 16:44:42 +0000http://johnson345.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/galaxy-s6-and-s6-edge-a-new-look-for-samsung-and-a-new-wallet/Gigaom: We were expecting a major reboot of the Galaxy S line, and that’s what Samsung gave us Sunday night at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, in the form of the S6 and S6 Edge. The two…]]>

We were expecting a major reboot of the Galaxy S line, and that’s what Samsung gave us Sunday night at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, in the form of the S6 and S6 Edge. The two new phones represent a major and stunning redesign of the Samsung line, but the changes weren’t just cosmetic. The biggest new technical feature to arrive in this Galaxy reboot was the much-anticipated mobile wallet Samsung Pay, which uses two different contactless transaction technologies to expand its reach far beyond that of any other mobile payment service.

Samsung has done away from the plastic cases that always characterized its phones and adopted Gorilla Glass front and back panels, which are then encased with a metal band. Also gone are Samsung’s removable battery and micro-SD card slot. The biggest cosmetic difference between the S6 and the S6 Edge is that the Edge has curved edges on…

]]>https://johnson345.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/galaxy-s6-and-s6-edge-a-new-look-for-samsung-and-a-new-wallet/feed/0Featured Image -- 157imomarAmid new watches, Android Wear crosses 1M downloadshttps://johnson345.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/amid-new-watches-android-wear-crosses-1m-downloads/
https://johnson345.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/amid-new-watches-android-wear-crosses-1m-downloads/#respondMon, 02 Mar 2015 16:43:15 +0000http://johnson345.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/amid-new-watches-android-wear-crosses-1m-downloads/Gigaom: The number of Android Wear downloads has crossed the into the one to five million range on Google Play, suggesting that around one million people are wearing smartwatches powered by Google software. Last month, estimates of…]]>

Last year, SanDisk released 128GB memory cards for phones and tablets; this year, it’s following up with a 200GB card. Called the Ultra microSDXC UHS-I, Premium Edition , the tiny card can store 20 hours of full HD video and transfer up to 1,200 photos in one minute thanks to the 90MBps transfer speeds. Before you get too excited for this little wonder, it comes with a big price tag: Expect to see the 200GB memory card in the next quarter with a suggested retail price of $399.99. Hopefully, the street price comes down quickly since this phone or tablet accessory can cost more than a mobile device.

]]>https://johnson345.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/sandisk-intros-a-small-200gb-microsd-card-with-a-big-price/feed/0imomarSamsung hints at multi-standard wireless charging in Galaxy S6https://johnson345.wordpress.com/2015/02/17/samsung-hints-at-multi-standard-wireless-charging-in-galaxy-s6/
https://johnson345.wordpress.com/2015/02/17/samsung-hints-at-multi-standard-wireless-charging-in-galaxy-s6/#respondTue, 17 Feb 2015 18:22:41 +0000http://johnson345.wordpress.com/2015/02/17/samsung-hints-at-multi-standard-wireless-charging-in-galaxy-s6/Gigaom: Samsung has supported wireless charging in several of its handsets over the past few years, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the function is also included with the new Galaxy S6 and S6 Note products. Having the…]]>

Samsung has supported wireless charging in several of its handsets over the past few years, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the function is also included with the new Galaxy S6 and S6 Note products. Having the phones work with multiple wireless charging products, however, would be new.

If you take Samsung’s most recent blog post as a big hint, this functionality could arrive on the S6 products when they debut on March 1. On Tuesday, Samsung penned a lengthy piece on the history of wireless charging, making a note that it is on the board of all three major wireless power standards bodies.

Those are the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP), the Power Matters Alliance (PMA), and Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) for those keeping score at home. The former two recently signed a letter of intent to merge and work together.

Earlier this year, when Twitter released its quarterly financial results, CEO Dick Costolo was asked whether the platform would ever implement a Facebook-style filtering algorithm, he hedged his answer by saying he wouldn’t “rule it out.” According to some recent comments from chief financial officer Anthony Noto, however, the company is doing a lot more than not ruling it out — it sounds like a done deal. And while that might help improve engagement with new users, it could increase the dissatisfaction some older users feel with the service.

At a financial conference on Wednesday in New York, the CFO provided some hints about the feature roadmap that new head of product Daniel Graf — who came to Twitter from Google in April — has in mind for the service, a list that includes better search and a move into group chat. But he also suggested that the traditional…